Abu Dhabi Global Market wins ‘Financial Centre of the Year' award

Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the International Financial Centre in Abu Dhabi, has been named ‘Financial Centre of the Year (MENA)’ for a third year in a row by Global Investor magazine. The accolade, presented at the annual MENA Capital Markets Summit Awards in Dubai, is a testament to ADGM’s achievements and innovations across all three of its authorities (the Financial Services Regulatory Authority, the Registration Authority and the ADGM Courts) in 2018.

ADGM’s approach to innovation, its commitment to providing a well-regulated environment and its customer-oriented ecosystem have resulted in continued strong growth into its third year of operations in 2018. Registered licenses have almost tripled from 430 in 2017 to about 1250 in 2018. ADGM has approved 92 financial entities and added another 20 local and foreign funds, bringing assets under management to a total of USD$23 billion from USD$4.2 billion in 2017. Firms anchoring in ADGM include Citibank, State Street, Unicredit, BNP Paribas and Softbank. Today, ADGM is recognised as the top REIT-management hub in the region and continues to have a strong pipeline of financial and non-financial firms pending applications and approvals.

ADGM has been championing innovation, pioneering new regulations and establishing innovative solutions to enable financial intermediation, attract more liquidity and investments, and anchor financial services in the region. Year-on-year, ADGM has launched a broad range of regional’s first initiatives and innovations to reinforce a dynamic and global international financial centre and business hub in Abu Dhabi.

Initiatives include: transforming the financial and capital markets via innovative solutions; advocating thought-leadership FinTech solutions; revolutionising the delivery of civil and commercial judicial dispute-resolution services with a fully digital eCourts platform; introducing the competitive aviation financing regime, launching a holistic tech start-up licence and an entrepreneurship programme for the SME community; and establishing the world’s most comprehensive crypto asset regulatory framework.

H.E Ahmed Al Sayegh, Chairman of ADGM said, “ADGM’s commitment to the economic advancement of Abu Dhabi has been recognised since our first year in operation and we would like to thank the UAE government, Abu Dhabi leadership, industry participants and Global Investor Group’s panel for their endorsement and encouragement. It gets more challenging yearly to vie for these awards and we are heartened to receive the industry endorsement for a third consecutive year.” “ADGM has advanced at an exceptional pace with transformational initiatives in all aspects of its operations from financials to non-financials to its judicial regime.

Our thought-leadership achievements in FinTech, innovative financial offerings, world-class arbitration services to forward-thinking business programmes and services have reinforced our value propositions as an IFC and business hub to the local and global communities. We will continue to maintain our common law jurisdiction and provide an efficient and inclusive ecosystem that attracts and facilitates even more investments and new business opportunities now and well into the future.”